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Another chance to comment on State Route 520 bridge plans

WSDOT is taking public comments on its supplemental draft environmental impact statement for three options under consideration for the westside segment of a new State Route 520 bridge.

The environmental report was released Friday. Comments can be submitted until March 8. A hearing and open house is scheduled from 5 – 7 p.m. on Feb. 23, at the Lake Union Park Naval Reserve Building, 860 Terry Ave. N. You can review the documents online here and e-mail comments to sr520bridge_SDEIS@wsdot.wa.gov. (It’s only a few hundred pages long. The executive summary is an engaging 66 pages).

A state legislative work group has already chosen Option A+ as the preferred solution in a report to the state Legislature. It would feature a new Montlake interchange, similar to the current interchange, with a second bascule drawbridge across the Montlake Cut and direct transit and HOV connections. It would include ramps to Lake Washington Boulevard and a 7-lane bridge over Portage Bay to Interstate 5. All three options would remove the Montlake freeway transit station.

The project would include lids over the freeway at McCurdy Park and at 10th Avenue East and Delmar Drive East. The entire project, with Option A+, is estimated to cost $4.5-$4.6 billion. The new floating bridge is scheduled to be completed in 2014.

State House speaker Frank Chopp, (D-43rd district), who represents residents around the bridge, joined a minority report against Option A+. There are plenty of residents in Montlake and Madison Park who aren’t thrilled with the plan. This will be another chance for residents to weigh in.

“Public comments are critical and valued. These documents are an opportunity for the public to weigh in on the 520 corridor and the 520 bridge project,” WSDOT spokesman Jeff Switzer said.

He pointed out that WSDOT received 1,700 comments on the first draft EIS, which helped shape the recent adaptation. “It shows we’re listening and we want to know what the public thinks about it,” he said.

WSDOT hopes to have nailed down a preferred option by this spring, with a final decision sometime in 2011.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..